Dance Group Pairs Science With Movement
To view our videos, you need to
enable JavaScript. Learn how.
install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.
Then come back here and refresh the page.
Some surprising offerings including art, music and dance are on tap for this year's World Science Festival. NY1's Stephanie Simon filed the following report.Sure dancers should have a certain amount of chemistry, but physics? Renowned choreographer Karole Armitage has created a new dance inspired by theoretical physics. It's called Three Theories.
"I read Brian Greene's 'The Elegant Universe' which is about theoretical physics about four years ago. And reading about the unfolding of patterns and how the universe operates was a thrilling joyride for me and I immediately wanted to make it into a dance," Armitage said.
Brian Greene is a professor of physics at Columbia University and co-founder of the World Science Festival. It's a citywide event that he hopes attracts a new audience to science. The Armitage Gone! dancers are performing the New York premiere of Three Theories June 3 - 6 at the Cedar Lake Theatre on West 26th Street as part of the festival.
"We're trying to get people to come to cultural events -- music, theater, film, dance, art. And come in for the art if you will and leave with the science. And that's what this is about," Greene said.
Like Greene's book, the dance deals with chaos theory, string theory and the theory of relativity.
"Relativity is relatively serene and predictable and for me it's all about the twisting and the warping of space time fabric which Einstein said is gravity. So I made movement that's all twisting and warping," Armitage said.
For chaos theory, the movements are volatile and unpredictable.
String theory then tries to reconcile the two as the dancers try to make order out of the chaos.
Watching the dancers may not turn you into a scientist of course, but Greene says it's about something even more elemental.
"Science should make your heart race because it's the wonder of the universe," Greene said. "It's the deepest questions, it's the biggest canvas on which those questions can be asked. So it really should grab you in a deep way and that's what we're trying to make happen."